RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A burglary at Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) Curation Lab has left the university missing tens of thousands worth of electronics and precious artifacts.
According to the university, more than $20,000 worth of 3D printers and computers, as well as irreplaceable fossils and other artifacts, were stolen from the lab on the night of Oct. 8 or morning of Oct. 9.
“Part of what we do, and what a lot of other people do with 3D scanning, is not only to make all these things more accessible but to make sure they can survive beyond the loss of the actual object,” said Bernard K. Means, the lab’s director. “And in this case, we lost the actual object.”
The Curation Lab is renowned for its work 3D printing rare artifacts, ensuring that a digital record exists even if the physical items are lost.
“They’re cool-looking things,” Means noted. “They might have just taken them because they looked cool.”
According to VCU Police, the suspects went in through the back door, where there are no cameras, and bypassed the electronic security system. They also broke into the Thai Top Ten restaurant next door.
The VCU Police Department and Richmond Police Department are asking for assistance from the public to identify one of the suspects, who was captured by a security camera outside of the lab.
Means said that, while the stolen electronic items can be replaced, the stolen artifacts — some of which are hundreds of years old, are irreplaceable and their loss is devastating for the lab.
Anthropology student Brooklyn Griffin is in the lab often. She expressed the emotional toll the incident has taken on the students who use the lab, highlighting it as a vital space for them.
“This lab is a safe space for a lot of people and to find out that it had been violated was, I think, hard for a lot of people,” Griffin said. “It disrupts the relationships we have with the people who gave us, lent us these fossils because we didn’t necessarily own those.”
As of now, VCU police have reported that approximately half of the stolen electronics have been recovered, but the search for the invaluable artifacts continues.
According to VCU Police, around half of the stolen electronics have been recovered so far but the search for the invaluable artifacts continues. Anyone with information related to the theft is encouraged to report it to VCU Police at 804-828-1196. You can also report it online here.